San Francisco, USA: The Laser 4.7 World Championship was held from 26th to 2nd Aug 2011 at San Francisco, USA. Indian team arrived at the venue about a week prior to the event for practice and to understand the local sailing conditions and fit into the cold climate.
The weather in San Francisco was very cold and the water temperatures were freezing. The kids got used to the cold climate during the practice sessions and by the time racing started, they were already enjoying it in the cold.
During the practice sessions we learned about the sea state, local tides, currents and wind patterns in the racing area. The event started on a good note that all our sailors were able to take front line starts. But they found it difficult to keep up with the Europeans on speed immediately after the start.
So we worked a little more on starting techniques and speed generation. By the 4th race of the series our sailors were able to hold on to their positions on every leg. The event saw heavy winds between 15 to 25 knots and this was a major problem for our sailors since in India we don’t get such conditions very often.
Rufus Patrick sailed extremely well to finish 4th in the silver fleet. He secured 60th place overall in a strong fleet of 112 boats. Praveen Prabhakar finished 36th in the silver fleet and was placed 92nd overall.
In the girls, Shaila Charles finished 41st , Aishwarya Chezhiyan finished 48th and Shweta Sadanand finished 50th overall. The girls performed very well in the beginning of the series but they started dropping down slowly by the end of the championship.
